Provider
by Jazavelli
Summary: When money becomes an issue & Granddads health is withering away rapidly. What sacrifices will Huey Freeman make in order to keep his family together, or more importantly how much will it cost him in return...


I know I knowwww, I'm gonna update Lost Ones hopefully tomorrow. I'm finishing up the new chapter now but in the meantime. I was reading Reminiscence by ToxicMKT a couple days ago & she sparked my creative muse & this story was born. If I'm honest it's not even about to be updated frequently but I just want to put it out so that eventually I'll get to it. Basically after I've finished Lost Ones & done a fluff piece lol :P

Provider title was inspired by N.E.R.D song Provider. So that's that.

Special S/O to ToxicMKT, you should all go read her story Reminiscence _(if your reading her story you'll see where I got the base idea for this fic but obviously imma add my own spin to it cos that's just what writers do #yadigg)_

**Disclaimers: I do not own Boondocks, thanks for reminding me. **

* * *

_**Huey Freeman: Vision? What do you know about my vision? My vision would turn your world upside down, tear asunder your illusions, and send the**_

_**sanctuary of your own ignorance crashing down around you. Now ask yourself, Are you ready to see that vision?**_

_**Huey Freeman - A Huey Freeman Christmas**_

* * *

_**PROLOGUE**_

Huey rubbed the back of his neck as he looked over the bills that were due this month. He blinked hard a couple times to regain his focus on the numbers and words in front of him. He shook his head, how did Granddad let it get this far. He was looking over gas, electric and water bills not to mention the mortgage was long overdue due with credit bills mixed in there somewhere. He leant back on the chair pushing the papers that were currently offending him away on the kitchen table. It was just after 1am and the 14 year old had school in the morning, he peered back at the letters on the table. Rubbing his face in frustration and confusion, he had thought that his grandfather's accountant had been taking care of all of these payments. The bold red letter writing revealed the accountant had clearly failed his job.

He witnessed the argument between his grandfather and the accountant earlier in the afternoon when he got back from school. He wasn't sure what had transpired but the Jewish man had been fired by his granddad. When he enquired about why his granddad would do that, he was reluctant to share and after Huey went away to think over what he had seen. He came back wanting to revisit the argument that had transpired between the men. His grandfather had an episode & then was in a vulnerable enough state to share what was now Huey's biggest burden. However Huey had to remind himself he had been the one that insisted on knowing exactly was going on. So his grandfather revealed that he was in debt, serious life changing debt. He was behind on his payments and he was paying someone to take care of everything financially and they squanderd his money & their life savings on shitty investments. He was appreciative of the fact the old man could even string the mess together enough to explain it to him in a logically manner.

The thing was, Huey was just 12 when he returned home from being out with Caesar & Hiro when his Granddad was out on the lawn sleeping. Huey had been startled by the scene of his granddad sleeping bare back in a pair of skimpy briefs on the lawn. He quickly hurried to his side, shaking him repeatedly. The man mumbled and groaned until he woke up, but that wasn't the worst thing. The worst thing came when he fully believed he was in his bedroom. He believed he was in his childhood home and had just returned back from college and was taking a nap before heading out to see some cuties at what Huey assumed to be a social spot. In fact his granddad had this formulated story that he was detailing to Huey for all of 5 minutes outside their house. Huey frowned he remembered asking his granddad if everything was alright, he remembered persisting that he wasn't in his childhood home. He helped him inside, over the next few months his strange behaviour continued. His granddad would sometimes make mistakes as to where he was, the people he knew or didn't know. He would end up in the strangest places not having any recollection of how he got there. Until Tom suggested they take him to a doctor.

That was where they found out that their Granddad was suffering from Alzheimer's condition. The news had floored Huey; his granddad who may have eaten all the wrong types of food but he was still an active man was suffering from an incurable condition. It perplexed the young revolutionary as he thought about the fact that his grandfather would eventually lose his mind or at least forget everything close to him which was equally as bad. So as Huey sat at the table looking at the bills that his granddad had entrusted someone to take care of he knew he had been taken advantage of. He thought about the seriousness of his health, some days were good, he was just his normal, whiny, grumpy self and other days were really bad. He could be hostile, hysterical and harsh. Huey had even been hit by him a few times in some of his episode. Sometimes to their dismay, he would get Huey & Rileys names mixed up and give Huey a lifelong lecture on something that was tailored for Riley and vica versa. At first he would admit they had thought it was amusing their granddad wasn't as sharp as he once was, they would play him a little when they were younger but the fun was short lived, after the then 12 & 10 year olds realized how real & not funny his condition was.

One night they had returned home from their friends, Riley & Huey had prepared to enter the house as soon as they set foot in the door. A gun was going off, the boys were ducking and yelling as their granddad came out in his robe shouting about intruders. They had tried to reason with him that they it was just them but in those moments, his mind wasn't all there. He continued with his assault until Riley & Huey were forced to leave the house to save their own lives as their granddad continued racing the 'intruders' out of his home. That night really sobered the boys up and made them realize there wasn't anything funny about your own granddad not recognizing you and almost killing you by accident. Huey and Riley had to break into their own home and remain quiet as possible so they're granddad wouldn't walk into their rooms and shoot them in the head. All of this just meant that for Huey that his already hard edged mind had get just that bit sharper and take on responsibility of being his grandfathers carer, seeing as Robert Freeman didn't think he was sick at all so he wouldn't get in house help. His grandfather just thought they were fussing around him for no reason. It seems he'd forgotten or wasn't trying to remember their hospital visit almost 2 years ago.

He rolled his neck whilst thinking of solutions. He had no idea where they were going to get the money from, it was all whole lot of money that his granddad had openly admitted to not having. Not to mention his health insurance was coming up for renewal and he needed his medication so that he could at least keep his moods as stable as they could get. He scooped up all the letters and switched the kitchen light off.

What the hell was he going to do, if the house goes into foreclosure not only would they be homeless but the state would deem their grandfather an unsuitable guardian and that meant he and Riley were going back to the group homes and his granddad in a retirement home or hospice. He had to face facts; this could potentially break up his family. He had always promised himself after his parent's death that he wouldn't allow anyone to break apart the last of his family. He had fought so hard in those group homes after their mother died and his father was too inept with his pain to cope with the job of parenting his young boys instead he found solace in other things that kept his mind at bay and away from his pain, ultimately contributing to his own death shortly afterwards. Huey reached his bedroom, flicking the light on he opened up a drawer and dumped the papers inside. He'd have to deal with them when he got back tomorrow. He was newly 14 he couldn't even get a job, how was he going to fix this.

He lay back on his bed his mind not easing up on the very real prospect that this wasn't just going to go away because he wanted it to.

"Damn"

* * *

**Next Morning**

Huey placed the breakfast tray by his grumpy grandfather.

"Come on granddad" Huey urged, he wanted him to take his tablets and eat his breakfast so he could be gone. The old man held a dull look on his features.

"Granddad"

"Stop calling me that" he snapped, Huey pulled a face this was just great he was in his zone again. He pushed the glass towards his grandfather.

"Drink this" he forced into his hand, the man mumbled about something that was unrelated to Huey before he more or less forced the man to drink the water.

"Swallow" he instructed firmly.

"Dammit granddad swallow" Huey bit out in frustration. The old man finally complied obviously unable to hold everything in his mouth any longer. He swallowed. Huey sighed.

"Alright, I'm going school. I'll see you later, if you need anything just call me" He received no response but he was used to this as his granddad stewed in his past memories, not quite sure where he was now but he had taken his medicine so he should be ok in a little while.

Huey grabbed his backpack off the ground as he exited his granddads room and walked downstairs, relieved to be getting out of the house.

"Yo Riley" he yelled

"Man I'm coming" he muttered coming out of the kitchen. The 12 year old Riley Freeman was glaring, not particularly at his brother but just in general he hated school & hated that a real nigga such as himself had to attend. He wore a pair of blue jeans matched with a blue air Jordan t shirt with the blue, white & grey Jordan footwear to go along with it.

"Nigga stop checking me out" Riley said with disgust, Huey rolled his eyes at his younger brother.

"Shut your ass up & come on" Huey replied turning away, to walk out of the house with his brother closely behind.

The first thing Huey did when he hit the outdoors was look across the street to Jazmines house it was a bad habit of his. It wasn't as if he could tell whether she was still there or not, they'd probably see her at the bus stop. She normally came by theirs to walk or ride the bus with them to school.

"What I gotta do, to not go school" Riley asked from behind him

"How many times am I gonna tell you ? You need to go to school Riley. You think all those gangsters you admire got to where they were because they couldn't count or read?" Huey answered monotonously.

"Whatever" Riley said back to him unimpressed with his reply.

They were approaching the busstop a few kids were there patiently waiting for the bus to come. They stood there for few minutes, Riley plugged his earphones in and leant back on the lamppost. Huey was about to do the same when he felt warm air tickle his skin.

"Boo" Jazmine said loudly into his ear as she passed him. Huey raised an eyebrow at his friends entrance, she stopped and smiled at him.

"Morning Huey, Hey Riley" she beamed happily, Huey squinted, way too much white teeth for this early morning.

"Wassup" Huey replied, Riley just nodded at her and continued on reading XXL magazine he had pulled out of his bag.

Huey quickly gave Jazmine the once over, it had to be quick because he didn't want her to notice him checking her out and whilst she was just turning her head to say hello to some other kids at the spot. He stole his look. She looked nice today, like usual she had a natural flare for just looking good. He hated it because of the way it made him feel. Jazmine turned hr attention back to him, he was looking up the road for the bus to turn to the corner and pick them up.

"You look nice today Huey" Jazmine noted, Huey smirked.

"Don't start with me" he told her as the bus approached, she smiled knowingly at him. They walked to the small queue of children.

Jazmine was quick becoming a flirt and her favourite person to do it with seem to be him. Not that he was complaining, he just didn't know how he felt about being her test dummy for some other guy she might like in the future. Her playfulness sometimes confused him, he knew when they were kids she had been a little obsessed with him but then you they grew up and things were going on with his granddad and her interest in him seemed to become less intense. It wasn't like it once was, she didn't ask him questions about relationships and if he liked any girls, she just wasn't interested in that part of him anymore. He had tried to ignore the fact that in itself bothered him but they were still friends so he was probably overreacting. Besides she flirted with him, that had to count for something. Then again that was her new thing this year at 14. At 13 she crushing on what Huey deemed losers. At 12 she was flipping between what style and look she wanted which she took out on her hair. She didn't want to be a badass but she didn't want to be little Miss Bo Peep either. It took her a little while but he could tell by looking at her she had found that balance. So Jazmine had gone through many transitional phases most notably she wised up from her 10 year old self against her will in order to retain a friendship with him but he thought that was for the best. He was sure she was due to go through some more, every year so far since they met was different with her. This year, like he mentioned earlier was the year of the flirt.

* * *

Jazmine sat next to Huey, he instantly looked out of the window. Jazmine sat back on her seat. He did look nice today, or maybe she was biased. Either way maroon top and black jeans & jordans made him look good. Jazmine looked at Huey and smirked.

"What's this" she asked tickling the bottom of his cheek, Huey jerked back a little making the cutest face.

"What have I told you about touching me" Huey said pushing her off, she giggled at his embarrassment. He rubbed his chin trying to smooth out his sprouting chin hair.

"It's facial hair" Huey told her what she already knew,

"He's becoming a manly bitch" Riley commented, Jazmine & Huey looked at each other.

"Riley why are you listening to our conversation, I thought you had earphones in" Jazmine asked looking through the gap between their chairs to Rileys seat behind them.

"Oh my bad, didn't know you niggas wanted some alone time" he answered now peering over the top of the seat. Jazmine tried not to blush but sort of failed.

"Sit down" Huey instructed, Riley gave him the finger before disappearing into his seat.

"Awwh lil Huey is growing up" Jazmine cooed on purpose because she knew he hated it. Huey rolled his eyes

"Look who's talking"

"What's that supposed to mean" she questioned him naively, Huey just looked back outside the window.

"It just means, I'm not the only one growing up here" Huey replied factually, she studied him for a moment.

"Well at least we have each other" Jazmine said happily, she didn't know that Huey was twisting in disgust over the fact that she would even think such a thing & twisting in joy over the fact she would think such a thing. He hated being a teenager and he was blaming her. However she didn't know so she looked up at some people entering the bus, saying hello to a couple people she knew.

"You niggas make me sick" Riley was heard saying from behind them, Jazmine frowned and missed Huey saying 'Yeah' quietly in response to her earlier comment.

* * *

Huey went through the day as normal, but he was secretly thinking about the troubles waiting for him back at his house. He'd been to the careers office today, he was too young to do anything, he couldn't even join the army. However he had only asked, he didn't believe in the fake wars that America posed with other countries in bids to get their oil. Obviously he had not disclosed his new home situation to the careers woman but he already knew getting a job was not going to happen. Even if he was able to get a job, he'd be making minimum wage and the sort of figures he was seeing on those bills were longer than his, Riley's and his granddads digits put together. He was unsatisfied with the resources available to him at the school, everything was looking very bleek and dim.

He perked up when he saw Jazmine talking to some other guy from their grade across the cafeteria,

"What's that all about" Huey motioned towards Jazmine & Aaron who were engaged in a conversation that looked semi serious. Jazmine fiddled with her hair and would occasionally look away from the boy who was talking to her. Hiro shrugged.

"I guess he's asking her out" Hiro concluded, much to Hueys annoyance. He tried to look unconcerned by this but these were his friends. Why would he even assume he could get away with it.

"Why" he asked casually,

"Cos she's hot" Caesar finished, Hiro nodded.

"What he said" Hiro started with his adlibs. Huey glared at his friends.

"But a nigga got friend zoned" Caesar said playfully,

"What he said, minus that cultural reference" Hiro said before the boys shared a laugh that Huey didn't appreciate. He didn't understand why they didn't get bored of this already.

"I didn't ask you all that" Huey replied, unzipping his bag and pulling out his lunch.

"You should just tell her you like her, then all of that would stop" Caesar said motioning quickly to Jazmine and Aaron. He took his sandwich out and ignored his friend.

"Terrorists" Sasha greeted plonking down beside Caesar,

"Angry black female" they replied to her familiar address.

"It's always nice to see you in a good mood" Caesar said to their friend, she shrugged flopping into her seat.

"I flunked my English test, sorry" Sasha grumbled while looking around the cafeteria. She too spotted Jazmine with Aaron and rolled her eyes turning back to the boys.

"You know he's been trying to ask her out for a whole week now" Sasha announced but they knew who she was talking about.

"How do you feel about this Huey, does it make you mad" Sasha teased as all seriousness left the building.

"Shut up" Huey snapped he didn't like being called out about Jazmine in any capacity. He was unfortunate to have friends who assumed they were relationship gurus & know it alls.

Jazmine finally came over they all stared at her. She scrunched up her face.

"What" she quizzed them,

"Aaron" Sasha stated. Jazmine rolled her eyes and Caesar grinned

"Whats the lame saying" Caesar asked

"Does he want you to teach him how to curl his hair so it looks just like yours" Hiro asked, Caesar and Sasha laughed while Huey smirked. Jazmine squinted

"Gosh, why don't you guys have you own show" she said sarcastically before sitting down. Sasha laughed.

"Soo" Sasha continued, everyone looked at her expectantly.

"So nothing, you know Aaron has just been bugging me to go to the movies with him." Jazmine said nervously, they made eye contact for a second before she looked at Sasha who was asking her a follow up question.

"What'd you say" Sasha asked, Jazmine took a seat next to her friend and was wedged between Sasha and Caesar. Hiro raised his eyebrows at Huey who glared at him in response.

"I said I'd think about it" Jazmine calmly replied. Caesar shot him a look as well,

"Oh" Sasha said a little dumbfounded

"I guess it could be worse" Sasha followed up with. Huey just ate his sandwich,

"Well, don't encourage me or anything" Jazmine spoke to the group.

"Yeah, dudes voice is kind of high" Caesar started

"His hair is kinda of long too" Hiro said

"Only fades & bass round here" Caesar continued

"Ay, I got spiky hair"

"Oh or spiky hair" Caesar added

"Afros"

"Braids"

"OK" Jazmine stopped them putting her hands up.

Huey had tuned out of the conversation as he thought it sounded promising at when she described him as 'bugging' but he wasn't so keen on her thinking about the date with that kid all the same.

"Where's Riley" Jazmine asked,

"Detention" everyone answered.

* * *

The day didn't drag as much as he would have liked it too, so he was on his way back home with Jazmine by his side. His brother like usual had detention. It wasn't as if Riley was a bad kid he just didn't know when to stop complaining so his teachers were always canning him in detention just to get him out of the class. He knew his brother would grow out of it eventually, when he realized he can get school done a lot quicker when he took all those extra hours in detention away.

"Wanna come over mine later" Jazmine asked from the side of him,

"I got some stuff to handle" Huey admitted

"What stuff" she asked curiously.

"Stuff Jazmine" he reiterated strongly.

"If you don't want to come, that's all you have to say" Jazmine said a little annoyance creeping into her voice.

"Jaz it's to do with my granddad alright" Huey caved very easily today when normally he wouldn't tell her a damn thing.

"Oh" was all she said in response

"How is he" Jazmine asked shortly afterwards

"He's good" he told her, that's when she stopped and looked at him. She then linked her arm with his and rubbed it. He wasn't quite sure what for but he just continued to walk until they reached their houses.

When he got home he went straight to see where his granddad was residing. The man was in the living room in his recliner just staring aimlessly at the TV screen. He had not changed out of his pajamas. Huey sighed and went up to his room. He sat at his desk and opened up his laptop as he carried out a mass of google searches. After 20 minutes of fine tuning his searches he had nothing.

That wasn't good, he needed to have a cash flow in abundance straight away. He sat back in his chair trying to brainstorm ideas. Any authorities were a strict no and that included school. He didn't know the Wunclers like that and he refused to ask the white man for money. His grandfathers credit cards were no use as they were close to being maxed out. As he silently thought through everything he started to resent his grandfather a little. He knew it wasn't his fault but Huey was angry that now it looked as if he didn't do anything they'd all be in separate states by the end of the month.

He picked up his phone and dialled Caesar.

"What up homie" Caesar greeted

"Yo, where's a good place to make a lot of money real quick, that doesn't require an age limit" Huey asked Caesar seriously.

"Drug dealing" Caesar said before laughing and getting serious.

"On a serious note how about Ebay or something. Just find some old stuff & label it important people will be blowing up your inbox. But wassup bro why you wanna know" Caesar asked, Huey's mind was still fixed on the first reply.

"Uh nothing was just brainstorming" Huey said truthfully.

"Why what you up to" Caesar asked curiously.

"Nothing, just need some money real quick" Huey answered in his usual plain tone.

"Why what you doing" Caesar continued with his nosy self.

"Nigga are you the police?" Huey felt like Riley at that point.

"Aiight suit yourself, calling a nigga about some money but wanna act mysterious & shit" Caesar began to sulk. Huey rolled his eyes

"I'll holla at you later" Huey told him before dropping the phone.

He stared at the bills he had on the side and looked at the rubbish results on his laptop screen. He then looked back on the dates on the bills. Then remembered his visit to the careers office, he looked at the red letter heads on the bills. His gut twisted, he wasn't seriously considering this but it had to be done. Something had to be done, Granddad wasn't putting up a fight to keep their family together and he was hardly in a state too otherwise this wouldn't be happening.

What was he supposed to do just let his brother rot in the system along with their Granddad. Granted when they moved to Woodcrest they were less than clean but in all his 14 years this was the most stability he had, had or at least remembered since his parents were alive. He leant forward on his elbows.

"Damn" he muttered.

* * *

:D

What'd you think ?

This won't be updated as frequently as Lost Ones cos that's my main & well I love it more *shrug* plus I have another story idea I wanna do after soo u know I'll see how everything goes & how I feel and time too. Cos I don't know about you guys, if you've started back or go to or w/e but schools round the corner for me +_+

When I do however get this up & running I might do an 1 or 2 extra parts to this prologue just to set things up a bit more.

Thanks for reading...so about that review :)


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